Welcome back to another edition of “obscure holidays.” Today, we’re celebrating National Pig Day! The apparent purpose of this holiday is to “recognize and give thanks to domesticated pigs.” I don’t know why it’s so specific to “domesticated pigs”–I mean, it’s not like there are any other types of pigs, right? A wild pig would be like a boar, wouldn’t it? Either way, pigs are worth celebrating. Otherwise, why would Charlotte go to all that trouble to save Wilbur in Charlotte’s Web? Besides, pigs are actually highly intelligent creatures–you can even train them to do tricks! And we can thank Ellen Stanley, an art teacher in Texas, for recognizing the value of pigs and consequently starting up this holiday back in 1972. To celebrate, here’s “Pig-In-A-Blanket” by Matthew Rohrer, courtesy of The Poetry Foundation (you can even listen to a reading of it on the site):

****Pig-In-A-Blanket by Matthew Rohrer

***

I wake up, bound tightly.

A warm, valerian smell cascades

to my palate. I can only move

my eyelids and toes.

Heat sits impishly on my chest,

at my throat, curtains of it brushing against me.

Panic creeps out of my armpits.

I can only move my eyelids and toes,

and this constant fluttering

lulls me to sleep.

***

I awake late and move like a bee

through the apartment,

from station to station

from the blue flame

to the shimmering disc.

From the stairs to the street,

to the grocery store.

To the meat aisle. To the cocktail wieners.

To make pigs-in-a-blanket,

to share them with friends.

To sink into bed, to bind myself

tightly in blankets, to flutter off into sleep,

and then on past sleep,

to be carried by admirers across a wooden bridge.

Later I will burn this bridge.

Okay, so this isn’t exactly a pig tribute poem, but until somebody writes “Ode to a Pig,” it’s the best we’ve got.